Undergraduate nursing students' participation in pre-hospital first aid practice with ambulances in China: A qualitative study
Lihong Zeng, Sisi Fan, Jiandang Zhou, Qifeng Yi, Guoli Yang, Wei Hua, Huan Liu, Hui Huang
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to understand the feelings and experiences of nursing undergraduates who participate in pre-hospital first aid and to explore the training programme of pre-hospital first aid for nursing undergraduates. The main objective is to provide a reference for the reform of pre-hospital first aid teaching in undergraduate colleges. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 nursing undergraduates who had participated in pre-hospital first aid in an ambulance from a teaching hospital in Hunan, China. The interview data were transcribed, and Colaizzi's seven-step method was used for subject analysis. RESULTS: The experiences of undergraduate nursing interns can be summarized into five themes: helplessness and fear of death, uncertainty of unknown events, satisfaction with self-improvement, need for professional competence, and the perception of a gap in pre-hospital emergency resources. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing colleges and teaching hospitals should pay attention to death education and pre-hospital first aid training. Teachers should be able to apply situational teaching methods to pre-hospital first-aid teaching and should focus on cultivating the comprehensive abilities of nursing students. At the same time, schools and teaching hospitals should also strengthen the cultivation of professional identity during pre-hospital first aid practice to reduce the rate of nursing personnel turnover. It's very important to supplement and retain professional nurses for the pre-hospital first aid.